


The Secrets You Keep

by Willowe



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, M/M, and Bones has awesome friends, the pairing is really secondary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-06 16:43:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1109151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willowe/pseuds/Willowe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonard has a secret he's been carrying around for years, blood on his hands that drives away those he loves. So its understandable that the last thing he wants to do is confide in his friends- that is, until an unwelcome face from his past shows up and turns everything on its head.</p>
<p>(Or: Jim and Spock learn they aren't the only ones with difficult familial relationships.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Secrets You Keep

**Author's Note:**

> I don't want to spoil the fic, but if you've seen "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" you probably know what's going to happen.
> 
> Mostly, I wrote this because there are a lot of fics dealing with Jim's past or Spock's but not nearly enough where they help Bones with his emotional baggage. I was tempted to make this a Jim/Spock/Bones fic, but there's something to be said for fics where the relationship between Jim and Spock doesn't detract from their friendship with Bones. That being said, you are of course more than welcome to read this as an OT3 fic if you so desire.

“So, what are your plans?”

Leonard looks up at Jim, who’s leaning against his office door, trademark grin on his face. Leonard frowns, more reflexively than because he’s actually annoyed, and even though he’s pretty sure he knows what Jim is talking about he decides he’s allowed to be a bit of an ass and drawls, “Well I was planning on finishing up this paperwork, before some nosy Captain decided to stop by.”

“Bah, no one needs paperwork,” Jim says dismissively.

“Pretty sure Command would disagree with you there,” Leonard points out. “And I have it on good authority that you have yet to finish yours too.”

Jim sighs and throws himself down into the chair on the other side of Leonard’s desk with an overdramatic flair that makes the doctor roll his eyes. “You know, I think I liked you and Spock more when you were constantly at each other’s throats. Having my bondmate and best friend team up against me just isn’t fair!” Jim complains.

“You don’t really mean that.”

“No, I don’t,” Jim agrees, grinning again. “And you haven’t answered my first question. What are your plans for when we get back home?”

“Nothing. Now go away.”

“C’mon, Bones, don’t be like that! It’s the end of the first ever five-year mission! An entire year of leave while the Enterprise undergoes maintenance! Everyone on this ship keeps going on and on about what they’re going to do when we’re back on Earth except you and I want to know why.”

Leonard makes the mistake of looking up at Jim. If he had just kept looking at his PADD he could have pretended that Jim was just being a nosy bastard and blown him off with enough gruffness that Jim would think he just asked at the wrong time. But once he looks at Jim’s face that plan goes out the window because yeah, he is being a nosy bastard but he also looks concerned, like he’s genuinely worried about what Leonard is going to do for that entire year. If Leonard tried to brush his question aside now he’d just look like an ass, and feel even worse.

So he sighs and looks back down at his PADD and mutters, “I already told you. Nothing. No plans.”

There’s silence for a moment and Leonard does not look up. He loves Jim, like some obnoxious combination of younger brother and the son he never had, but he doesn’t need to see the confused pity on the kid’s face right now. “How can you not have any plans?” Jim finally asks. “What about seeing Joanna?”

“Same visitation rights apply as always. I can have her every other weekend, but her mom’s refusing to pay for her tickets out to San Francisco and she doesn’t want her traveling alone. And… Well, you know what our salaries are like. I can’t afford six tickets between the two of us just to get her for a weekend,” Leonard admits quietly.

“Then why not move back to Georgia?” Jim asks. “No one says you have to stay in San Fran for the whole year.”

Leonard can just imagine how well that would go down with his family. No matter where he was in the state, even if he was as far away from them and his hometown as he could get, they’d find out that he was back and show up on his doorstep raising hell. And any time he had with Joanna would inevitably be ruined. “I can’t do that,” he mutters, still staring down at his PADD even though he hasn’t actually accomplished any work since Jim walked into his office.

“But Bones-”

“Jim, I really have to finish this,” he says, motioning towards the PADD which has, by now, gone into idle mode. He jabs the screen to wake it up.

Jim, luckily, takes the hint and stands up. “Alright,” he says. He doesn’t sound happy, but Leonard is still refusing to look at him. “Will we see you at dinner tonight?”

“Dunno,” Leonard says, already pulling up the report he had been working on before. “Maybe, if I finish this.”

He finishes the report.

He does not go to dinner.

XXXXX

It’s halfway through Beta shift the next day when Spock finally shows up in Sickbay. Leonard technically isn’t on duty right now but he had been expecting either the Vulcan or Jim to show up at some point and he figured he might as well make it easy for them to find him. He had been working on the last of the paperwork in his office when a couple of injured engineers came in and he stepped out to help treat them.

He’s just finishing up running a dermal regen unit over the last of an ensign’s burns when he sees Spock hovering near the doorway to Sickbay. “Well don’t just stand there. If you’re going to do your husband’s dirty work you might as well come in,” Leonard calls out gruffly.

The ensign chuckles slightly, though one raised eyebrow from Spock causes him to fall silent. “I simply did not wish to distract you from your work,” Spock says as he steps forward.

“You’re here, aren’t you? That’s distraction enough.” Leonard sets down the regen unit and says to the ensign, “Stay away from anymore explosions, you hear? I don’t want to see you back here until you’re reporting for your physical at the start of the next mission.”

“Yes sir,” the ensign says, hopping down off the biobed. “Enjoy your shore leave, sir!”

Shore leave. Leonard can’t blame everyone for being obsessed with it, but he wishes they didn’t have to be so goddamn obvious about it. “Well come on then, Spock,” Leonard says, motioning for Spock to follow him into his office. “Might as well get this over with then.”

“If you are uncomfortable talking to me then perhaps I can convince Jim to return later-”

“No, Spock, all things aside I’d rather talk to you,” Leonard says. “You’ll at least leave me be if I tell you I don’t want to answer a question. Jim wouldn’t leave me alone no matter how much I deflect or yell.”

“He is concerned about you,” Spock says.

“Yeah, well he doesn’t have to be,” Leonard mutters. “Look, Spock, I’ll find something to do to keep me busy. Pick up some shifts at Starfleet Medical, help you keep Jim out of trouble-”

“That will not be necessary, Doctor.”

“Oh come on, Spock, you know as well as I do that Jim can find some way to gravely injure himself no matter where he is or what he’s doing.”

“Indeed, however I have already discussed that particular issue with him,” Spock says. His voice is neutral as ever, but Leonard knows how that ‘discussion’ probably actually went. “Doctor McCoy… Leonard. If financial difficulties are the only thing keeping you from visiting your daughter, or moving closer to her, Jim and I would be more than willing to-”

“I’m going to stop you right there, Spock,” McCoy interrupts. “No, it isn’t just my finances that are causing problems here, and I won’t have you give me credits when chances are my bitch of an ex-wife will simply find another way to keep Joanna away. And by the time I finished fighting her in court again I’d be back in space and it won’t matter.”

Spock’s brow furrows, a movement so slight that most people would miss it. But he’s made a habit of learning to watch the Vulcan over the past five years, and he knows Spock is trying to put together all the pieces of information to figure out what’s really going on here. Frankly it makes Leonard nervous. He knows the chances of Spock finding out about the dirty secrets in his past are slim, especially when he’s not even directly mentioned in any records of the event, but if anyone could figure things out it would be Spock and Jim.

“Will you have family meeting you upon our arrival?” Spock asks.

Leonard blinks, taking a moment to adjust to the sudden change of conversation. When his mind catches up with things he sighs. “Do you really need to ask that?”

“No,” Spock says after a moment. “I suppose I do not. My apologies. I will take my leave.”

“Tell Jim I’ll be okay,” Leonard says. “And not to worry about me.”

“We both know he’ll do no such thing,” Spock says. “As you have told me on numerous occasions, friends are apparently supposed to show illogical worry towards one another.”

Leonard stifles a smile as the Vulcan leaves his office. He’s learned enough about Spock over the years to know that Jim isn’t the only one who’s illogically worried. He may not have family waiting for him back on Earth, but he has a feeling those two will make sure he isn’t left alone.

XXXXX

The command crew and all senior officers, including Leonard, are in the last group to leave the ship. Apparently they’re high-ranking enough to get the privilege of beaming directly down to the planet, instead of taking one of the shuttles down. Leonard isn’t convinced this is actually any better, but at least it takes far less time for his feet to hit solid ground. They materialize in a large, empty reception hall and have a scant minute to readjust to their surroundings before the doors are flung open and family members of the officers rush in.

Leonard can feel the press of too many people around him, everyone calling out to each other and talking loudly, more than one person crying tears of happiness. It makes him uncomfortable and he slowly makes his way towards the edge of the room, where there are fewer people and he can keep a wall to his back. He wants to leave but he agreed to grab dinner with Jim and Spock, and he doesn’t know where the dynamic duo is in this crowd.

“Looking for us?”

Leonard scowls out of habit as he turns to face Jim. “Hate to break this to you Jim, but not everything revolves around you.”

“Sure it does!” Jim says with a laugh. Behind him, Spock has one of those almost-smiles on his face, the kind that only Jim- or on very rare occasions, Nyota or Leonard himself- can bring about. “Besides, who else would you be waiting around here for?”

Leonard flinches before he can stop himself and the grin fades from Jim’s face. He reaches out and gently touches Leonard’s arm, and says quietly, “I’m sorry, Bones. You know I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Leonard reaches up and squeezes Jim’s hand briefly before letting go. “I know, Jim,” he says. “It’s alright.”

He reminds himself that Jim and Spock are the only other crew members in the room right now without anyone waiting to greet them, that if anyone understands how tense family relations can be it would be these two. Jim is just being himself really, and after all these years Leonard should be used to the way his friend can sometimes speak without thinking. Hell, in some situations it’s pretty damn hilarious and-

“Oh, Leonard, darling! There you are!”

Leonard freezes as an older woman rushes forward and flings her arms around him. He’s just about to push her away and start demanding answers when he catches a whiff of all-too-familiar perfume that makes his heart skip a beat as memories overwhelm him. “Grams?” he whispers, pulling back to really look at her. “What are you doing here?”

His Grams looks the same as he remembers, though her face isn’t twisted with anger and grief like it was the last time he saw her. Part of him is hopeful that she’s taking the first steps towards reconciliation, that the long years spent apart have softened her rage and she might have found it in her heart to forgive him. But the smile she gives him is forced and bitter and her eyes remain cold, and Leonard feels his heart break all over again.

“Why wouldn’t I be here, dear?” she asks. She pats his shoulder; the action seems stilted, awkward, and Leonard winces. “I must admit, it’s a smaller gathering than I expected…”

“Were you expecting reporters? A chance to gain some publicity?” Leonard asks quietly. “Or are you just here to demand more money?”

The faked niceness and sincerity disappears in an instant, replaced with a twisted, hateful scowl that Leonard remembers all too well. “You don’t know what it’s like,” she hisses. “With your grandfather laid up, and obviously your father isn’t supporting us-”

“Grams, please,” Leonard says quietly. _Please stop_ , or _please go away_ , or _please forgive me_ he doesn’t know. Why did she have to show up now, here of all places?

“I think that’s enough,” Jim says, stepping forward. Leonard had forgotten that he was even still there and he’s mortified, terrified, adrenaline and anxiety rushing through his systems at the realization that he won’t be able to avoid Jim’s questions anymore.

“Who the hell are you?” Leonard’s grandmother snaps.

“I’m Captain James T. Kirk, and I think you’ve overstayed your welcome,” Jim says. “Either leave willingly, or I can find a few security officers to escort you out.”

“Leonard, are you just going to let them do this?” she demands, whirling on him again.

Leonard doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t know how she can expect anything of him even as he’s mentally going over his budget for the next year. “I’m sorry, Grams,” he says, his voice soft. “I’ll… I’ll try to send what I can.”

The slap doesn’t surprise him but she’s strong for her age and the force of it knocks his head to the side. When he looks back over at her Jim is holding her wrist in a firm grip while Spock returns with a group of security officers.

She spits on Leonard as the officers start ushering her away. “Save your credits,” she snaps. “I don’t want the money of a murderer anyway.”

Leonard watches her disappear with a numbness slowly spreading through his body. A couple people had glanced over at the disturbance but luckily they’re all more focused on conversations with their own family. Jim and Spock, on the other hand, are watching him intently, almost cautiously.

_They know_.

It’s that thought that pierces through the numbness, gets him shaking and his heart racing because _they know_ , at least a little, and they’ll start asking questions or go digging and then-

“Bones! C’mon, just breathe, it’s okay, she’s gone Bones,” Jim says. He’s holding on to Leonard’s arm, his other hand rubbing his back, and even Spock is hovering closer than normal. Leonard gasps once, twice, before managing a shaky breath. “That’s it, just keep doing that, you’re okay, we’re just gonna get out of here…”

Normally Leonard would be snapping at Jim for talking to him like this, but right now he takes comfort from his friend’s soothing voice, uses it to ground him and keep him focused as he lets Jim lead him out of the hall and into a nearby empty conference room. Spock pulls out a chair and Jim pushes him down into it, and Leonard cradles his head in his hands and tries to remember how to breathe.

It takes several long minutes for Leonard to calm down enough to really take in his surroundings. Jim is sitting in a chair next to him and still has a hand resting gently on Leonard’s back. Even Spock is standing closer than usual, like he does when waiting to help an injured crewmember. But there’s a softness in his eyes that matches the worry on Jim’s face, reminds him that he isn’t just any crewmember to these two.

He’s their friend. And that means they won’t let this go without quite a bit of fight on their part.

“I’m fine,” Leonard mutters. He makes a half-hearted attempt to brush Jim’s hand aside, but Jim is having none of that.

“Just stay here for a moment, okay? I haven’t seen a panic attack that bad since the last one you helped me through at the Academy,” Jim says. “Which, by the way, how come I never knew you got panic attacks?”

“I don’t,” Leonard growls.

“The episode you just experienced included many features of a panic attack, thus making your statement an obvious falsehood,” Spock says.

“Well then I don’t get them anymore,” Leonard snaps. “Haven’t had one in years. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

He tries to stand, but two sets of hands gently push him back down. Leonard feels panic well up in him again for a split-second but then the hands are gone, even if he knows he still has no easy way out of this inevitable conversation.

“Leonard… Who was that woman?” Jim asks, his voice soft in a way that grates on Leonard’s nerves rather than comforts.

“You heard me talking to her. You figure it out,” Leonard mutters.

“Yeah well I heard a lot of things during that conversation that I don’t really believe,” Jim says. “I’d rather hear the answers from you.”

“And if I don’t want to talk?”

“It is my experience that humans draw comfort from sharing pain with one another,” Spock says. “Perhaps you too might-”

“No,” Leonard interrupts, his voice sharp. “You wouldn’t understood.”

“Why?” Spock asks. “You have been extremely patient with Jim and myself over the past five years. Do you believe that we would not be patient with you in return?”

“It’s not a matter of patience! Damnit man, don’t you get it? She wasn’t lying, and every time people find out the truth they leave! They leave, and I…” Leonard buries his face in his hands, takes another deep breath and tries to calm his racing heart, tries to stop the bile rising in his throat. “You two are the closest thing to family I have at this point. And now I’m going to lose you too.”

Leonard is startled by Jim cuffing him across the head, just hard enough for Leonard to know that his friend isn’t amused. “You’re an idiot if you think we’re going to leave you,” Jim says, eyes flashing with anger. “After everything we’ve been through over the past five years? After our time at the Academy before that?” Jim shakes his head. “Sometimes I can’t fucking believe you, Bones.”

“Jocelyn left because of this,” Leonard says quietly. “Five years together. I tell her about this, she walks out and takes everything.”

“Yeah, well I’m not her!”

“Jim, calm yourself,” Spock says quietly, resting a hand on Jim’s shoulder. To Leonard, he says, “Perhaps you should start at the beginning.”

Leonard takes another deep breath, exhales shakily. They won’t leave this alone, he knows that. If he refuses to answer he’ll just hurt them, and Jim at least will go digging anyway. Maybe he’ll even track down his grandmother, hear first-hand her account of what happened. If Jim does that there’s definitely no way either of them would speak to him again. But if he explains it himself…

A gentle touch to Leonard’s arm gets his attention, but he’s surprised to see that it is Spock, not Jim, who reached out. “When I confided in you certain details of my childhood, to gain insight into how Jim might react when we did meld, you did not turn away. When Jim revealed his experiences on Tarsus IV to us, you supported him as much, if not more, than I did. To turn against you now, when it is you who needs us to listen, would be… illogical.”

“Damn Vulcan logic,” Leonard mutters.

“Bones, he’s right,” Jim says. “Whatever your grandmother was angry about, we won’t react like she did.”

Leonard isn’t sure about that, but his options are limited. He’s shaking and his stomach is in knots, but his voice is steady as he says, “I murdered my father.”

There is silence for a long moment, and Leonard can’t bring himself to look at his friends’ faces. “Spock’s right, maybe you should start at the beginning,” Jim suggested gently.

Leonard snorts. “That is the beginning,” he says. “I won’t bore you with details. He was wasting away, an incurable disease that left him in agony. He asked me to end his suffering, and I did.”

“Assisted suicide is not a crime under those circumstances,” Spock says.

“Don’t you think I know that? Everything was done properly, all the paperwork filled out, but that doesn’t change the fact that I was the one who gave him the injection!” Leonard says, his voice rising in volume and intensity. “No one else was there, I just thought they didn’t want to come but it turns out he never told them! Never said a word and I had to tell my grandparents I had killed their son! And then, just a handful of weeks later, they found a cure! They found a goddamned cure!”

Leonard flinches as a hand reaches forward but it is simply Spock, of all people, gently brushing a tear away. When did he start crying? He thought he stopped getting worked up about this years ago.

Jim reaches over and wraps an arm tightly around Leonard’s shoulders, pulling him in close and just offering support. “That’s why she was so angry today,” Jim says quietly.

Leonard nods. “They blame me for his death. Maybe they should. Or maybe it’s not my fault. To be honest I’ve spent years going over it all in my head and I just don’t know anymore. My family wanted nothing to do with me, so I moved to a different part of the state and left them alone. Met Jocelyn, fell in love, got married. Had Joanna. Jocelyn never understood why I didn’t want to talk to my relatives, because family is a big deal to her, but she didn’t pry.”

“How did she find out?” Spock asks.

“My Grams showed up on our porch one day while I was at work,” Leonard says. “She contacts me every once in a while wanting money, or just wanting to hurt me. I don’t know which it was that day but she told Jocelyn what I did. Or a version of it, anyway. I came home to find Jocelyn gone, Joanna with her. I lost everything in that divorce, and Jocelyn makes it as hard as possible for me to see her because she can’t trust someone who would kill his own father.”

“That’s why you didn’t want to tell us, because of her reaction,” Jim says, realization dawning. “And why she’s being so stubborn about Joanna travelling, and why you don’t want to move back to Georgia.”

“Yeah,” Leonard says bitterly. “I don’t talk about it because everyone who finds out leaves.”

“Well we are not leaving,” Jim says firmly. “You did what you had to in order to help your father in the only way you could.”

“I should have done something else,” Leonard insists, his voice breaking slightly.

“You could not know about the discovery of a cure. The only logical course of action was to honor your father’s wishes,” Spock tells him. “It is regrettable that your family does not see it that way, but that does not in any way place blame on you.”

Leonard wishes he could believe him, but ideas of right and wrong have gotten so tangled up in his head over the years and he doesn’t know what to believe. So he shrugs and says, “I don’t think about it much, anymore.”

“Except when planning shore leaves or if your grandmother shows up?” Jim asks, his voice just teasing enough that it sets Leonard at ease and he manages a weak smile.

“Okay, so maybe it’s been on my mind a little bit recently.”

“Evidence would suggest it has been on your mind more than a little bit,” Spock says.

Leonard rolls his eyes. “Just what I need, the hobgoblin sassing me,” he grumbles, but he doesn’t mind so much. This banter and teasing, more than anything else, tells him that they’re actually going to be okay.

“Enough you two,” Jim says with a laugh. “Now, I don’t know about you guys but I’m feeling a change of plans tonight. Takeout, and enough real alcohol to make anyone forget five years up in the black. What do you say?”

Spock has a disapproving look on his face, but that sounds like a brilliant idea to Leonard. “Now you’re talking,” he says with a wide grin. “I’m sure Spock wouldn’t mind being the responsible one for once, right?”

“For once?” Spock repeated, raising an eyebrow. “I believe you have mistaken me with my bondmate, Doctor McCoy.”

Leonard chuckles as Jim starts protesting loudly and feels some of the weight lift off of his chest. They’ll be okay, the three of them, just like they always are.

XXXXX

Two weeks pass with a normality that almost makes Leonard suspicious. He keeps an eye out for pitying glances, braces himself for the weighted “how are you feeling?” questions that he keeps expecting to hear, but none of it comes and he doesn’t know how to feel about that. If his friends started mothering him he could get angry, yell at them and storm away and after a couple of awkward apologies everything would be fine. But he doesn’t know what to do when his friends don’t do anything.

It takes those two weeks for everyone who makes up the command crew and senior officers to finish the usual round of intense debriefings and meetings. Most of those two weeks, of course, is spent with Jim and Spock running themselves ragged at the whim of the Admirals and Leonard hunting them down to yell at them to eat some food and get some sleep before they keel over, goddamnit.

At least Starfleet Medical has more sense than to drag things out for that long. Leonard has three days of actual meetings, one day to review his requests for an updated sickbay on the Enterprise, and a couple extra hours where he signs up for a couple of shifts at Medical and talks over some of his more extraordinary findings from the mission with his superior. He’ll probably end up writing a scientific paper, or two, about everything over the next year.

If, during his down time, he goes over his finances to see if he can send anything to his Grams… well, it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t have any money to send anyway, not if he wants Joanna to visit more than once. As it is he’s looking at only a handful of visits from his daughter, and that’s a prospect he doesn’t particularly enjoy.

When everyone (and by everyone he means Jim and Spock) finishes their meetings, Nyota sends out a mass comm message inviting the usual group out for dinner. By the time Leonard gets there Nyota and Scotty have already snagged a table, and Carol arrives not long after. They’re just debating whether to place bets on who will show up last when Chekov and Sulu arrive, followed immediately by Jim and Spock.

It’s a low-key sort of event, just a bunch of friends meeting up and hanging out, and Leonard feels the last of the stress he was carrying from his conversation with Spock and Jim melt away. He has a couple of drinks, laughs at his friends’ jokes, and offers appropriate congratulations when Nyota announces she’s made the linguistics team on a prestigious archaeological dig.

They’re just finishing the last of their desserts, conversation dying down in that way it does when everyone is too tired and too full of food to keep talking, when Carol says, “Well, I think now is as good a time as any to hand over this gift.”

“Gift?” Leonard repeats. There are smug looks and sly grins on everyone else’s face and that makes him wary.

“Well, Jim and Spock have an anniversary coming up, don’t they?” Carol says. “So Nyota and I were thinking we should do something to help them settle down properly here on Earth. Except when I asked what they needed, Jim told us…”

“Nothing,” Jim says, grinning. “Mom had a townhouse here in San Francisco that she hasn’t used in years that she gave to us, fully furnished and everything. So I told her to take whatever money people were going to contribute to us and-”

“And give it to you,” Carol finishes, handing an envelope over to Leonard with a flourish.

“Me?” Leonard opens it up and sees several credit chips in it, more than he would have expected considering the sort of salaries they make. A sudden, terrifying, thought strikes him and he asks sharply, “What exactly did Jim tell you?”

“Just that you needed money to pay for Joanna’s visits out here,” Nyota says. “We all know how much you miss her-”

“-and how much of a bitch your ex-wife is,” Sulu adds.

“-and after everything you’ve done for us over the last five years, we thought this was as good of a way as any to say thanks,” Scotty finishes.

Leonard wonders if he should be concerned about how easily the crew works as a singular unit, but then again that’s probably the main reason why they’re all sitting here today instead of lying dead on some distant, unnamed planet.

“I don’t know what to say,” Leonard says after a moment of silence. He can see Joanna now, every other weekend for the entire year if he wants. He can afford the cost of the shuttle to pick up his daughter and bring her back to San Francisco. He’s not convinced that Jocelyn won’t find some other way to stop him, but he’s one step closer to being able to hold Joanna again.

“Well don’t go out of your way to thank us or anything,” Nyota says, teasingly.

“Thank you,” Leonard grumbles, a bit embarrassed but mostly just enjoying his crewmate’s laughs at his gruff demeanor.

“If we’re still giving gifts, I have an announcement you guys might like,” Jim says. “Just got the approval from Command- nice, big bonuses to be added to your next paycheck.”

A cheer goes up from the table, excited chatter starting up again as everyone begins discussing what they’ll spend their bonus on. Leonard manages to catch Jim’s eye and nods slightly, his way of saying thanks for diverting attention away from him.

Jim catches up with him as they leave the restaurant. “So, what did you think?” he asks, slinging an arm around Leonard’s shoulder. Spock walks on the other side of Jim, feigning a lack of interest in their conversation even though Leonard knows he is listening closely.

“Good food. Wouldn’t mind going back there sometime,” Leonard says, pretending, as always, that he doesn’t know what Jim is talking about.

Jim grabs the envelope with credits from Leonard’s hand and waves it in front of his face. “I’m talking about this, Bones. Did we surprise you?”

“’course you did,” Leonard says, grabbing the envelope away from his friend. “You know you did.”

“Then this is gonna surprise you even more,” Jim says with a certain amount of glee that makes Leonard understandably nervous. “See, Spock and I called in a couple of favors…”

“What did you do?” Leonard demands. Anything involving calling in favors is bound to be major, and that makes him nervous.

“What Jim means is that we discussed matters and I was the one who called my father for a favor,” Spock says. That puts Leonard at ease a little; Spock handling matters is far preferable to Jim racking up debts with the Admiralty. But his anxiety goes shooting through the roof when the next words out of Spock’s mouth are, “A lawyer was sent to pay a visit to both your ex-wife and your grandmother.”

“What- why the hell would you do that?” Leonard demands. Oh god, if Jocelyn comes after him with lawyers of her own-

“We just wanted to send them a message, Bones, and from all accounts it was received loud and clear,” Jim says.

“And what message was that, hm?”

“That further slander and attempts at blackmail by your grandmother will not be tolerated. And that your ex-wife has certain obligations she must fulfill in accordance to your custody settlement,” Spock says. “And that, should she not fulfill them, there are those who will being supporting your rights in these matters.”

It takes several moments for the implications of this to fully sink in. “Joanna,” he breathes.

Spock nods. “Indeed.”

“None of us have great families, Bones,” Jim says, his voice soft. “Sure, Spock and I may be on better terms with ours in recent years but we’ve made new families of our own as well. And that includes you, probably more than anyone else. So if your ex-wife needs a healthy dose of fear to get her to play nice, then we’ll do that. And if you need credits to pay to get your daughter out here, we’ll do that too.”

“It is regrettable that your blood relatives have disowned you,” Spock says, his voice equally quiet. “But as Jim and I told you 2.1 weeks ago, we will not abandon you over that which is not your fault.”

Leonard can feel his face flushing with embarrassed happiness. He’s not used to this sort of touchy-feely conversation with his friends and it makes him uncomfortable, even if he can’t deny that he definitely appreciates the sentiment.

Jim, perhaps sensing this, claps him on the back and asks, “Drinks? Back at our place?”

Leonard shakes his head. “I’m gonna head home, send Jocelyn a comm.” He grins. “Figure I should at least give her a head’s up before picking up Joanna this weekend.”


End file.
